Quantitative evaluation of hypertensive pulmonary arterial change.

A new method to quantitatively evaluate pulmonary arterial change in pulmonary hypertension is presented in this paper. Hypertensive pulmonary arterial changes are classified into four grades according to severity and a score from 1 to 4 is given to each arterial change according to the grading. An index of pulmonary vascular disease is then defined as a relative mean value of all scores. It is concluded that this index accurately expresses the grade of pulmonary arterial change in the whole pulmonary arterial system in any given case and makes possible a detailed statistical analysis of large numbers of cases.